Peripheral cutter heads are known to be used for the machining of cylindrical and bevel gears as well as for general milling operations on universal mills or five axis machine tools. Most peripheral milling cutters are solid cutters, consisting of one piece and usually made of high speed steel. Other peripheral cutter designs utilize carbide inserts which are mounted or brazed into pockets on one or both sides along the outside diameter of a disk shaped cutter head. The base material in case of carbide inserts is usually case hardened steel. Carbide inserts mounted or brazed onto the outer circumferential surface of a disk-shaped cutter head is also a commonly used design.
In milling with a disk shaped cutting tool having inserts on the circumference thereof, the depth of cut may depend in part on the radial length of the cutting edges. Since standard carbide inserts are usually available with a cutting edge length of less than about 20 mm, it is common in such cutters to stagger two or more inserts radially with a certain overlap in order to allow cutting depths which are deeper than a single insert (e.g. deeper than 20 mm). If a large cutting depth is required without the need of a chip width that matches the cutting depth, then it is possible to gradually work into a recess, notch or tooth slot in several passes if the cutter profile behind the cutting edges has a sufficiently low profile and clears the already machined surface.
In order to provide deep cuts with long cutting edges, it is also possible to utilize stick blades, which are radially oriented. Depending on the amount of stick-out of the blade tips versus the outer diameter of the cutter disk and the angle of the cutting edges versus the axis of rotation, it is possible to achieve cutting edges which are, for example, 50 mm and longer considering readily available carbide stick dimensions.
Stick blades can be re-sharpened depending on their length between 30 and 150 times. This, and the fact that the grinding of the blade profiles can realize individually customized blade angles makes the stick blade system principally very attractive for the use in peripheral cutters. However, the application of stick blades has not been heretofore successful due to the fact that the stick blades had to be clamped firmly between at least two of their sides. Stick blade clamping commonly requires a rigid blade mounting slot surrounding the stick blade with provisions for clamping the stick blade using a clamp block and a clamp screw. Rigid surroundings, clamp block and clamp screw in a peripheral cutter require significant space in the direction of the cutter axis.
To date, existing stick blade peripheral cutters comprise a cutter head having a significant amount of material in the axial region between the cutting blades and the front end of the cutter (as viewed facing a cutter positioned on a machine). Such material increases the axial dimension (i.e. thickness) of the cutter and limits the axial feed amount of the cutting blades since the amount of axial travel must be constrained in order to avoid collisions between the front of the cutter and machine components. Additionally, cutting depths which are larger than the length of the cutting edge (notches, recesses or gear teeth) cannot be realized with existing peripheral stick blade cutters due to the significant axial cutter dimension forward of the cutting blades.